Endsville Eddie

I’ve spent the afternoon ripping old vinyl into digital files, mostly as an excuse to listen to these records I have in brilliant analog sound. I’m using an ION turntable I got from Think Geek* and Audacity to get it all done, and it’s easy and fun.

One of the records I have I got at a yard sale at least ten years ago. It’s called The New Sounds Of the Weird-ohs, and it’s really great surf/garage pop from 1964. It seems to have been pressed to sell models from the Hawk company, and all the songs are pretty much anthems for one of the model characters you could get, like Huey’s Hot Rod, Hot Dogger Hangin’ Ten, or Endsville Eddie. All the characters have an Ed Big Daddy Roth feeling to them, so the music matches up perfectly.

I’m pretty sure this is out of print (a quick search of the Internets tells me that it is) so I think it’s okay to share one track from the record. If it’s not okay, I guess the NSA will tell me by activating the secret mind probe it put into my cellphone.

I’m not sure how to embed a player in WordPress (I guess I should learn that), but here’s a link to the mp3 file: Endsville Eddie

Wait! I think I got an audioplayer to work! Click the big PLAY thingy: [sc_embed_player fileurl=”http://wilwheaton.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/endsville.mp3″]

Doesn’t make me feel old, but I *LOVE* that vinyl crackle and that ’60s surfer sound. It took me right back to my childhood, before I hit double digits, when the worst thing that happened at school was someone smoking in the restroom, before the entire train wreck of my life began. Being 9 years old and dancing to surf music on the bed…oh for that simplicity.

Yeah, I see the B.M.I. notation on that web page – run Wil, run! B.M.I. will hunt you down and throw you in jail just because you’re a good guy (and they like to squeeze any penny out of a person they can). I never understood why they didn’t do the smart thing with Napster and just use it as a vehicle to offer people a chance to buy the actual CD, like Apple and Amazon ended up doing. Guess they thought they were going to get away with controlling music with an iron fist. Glad Macklemore put all those people in their place. Sometimes it’s better to ride the wave then trying to disintegrate it.

If somebody does get their boxer briefs in a wad, you can always direct them here; http://www.weird-ohs.net
If you click on the image it plays the song. Endsville Eddie is the last one. But you probably know that, it was an easy find on the googles.

Although sound recordings were first given federal copyright protection in 1972, sound recordings made before February 15, 1972 remained protected under state law rather than under the federal copyright statute. As a result, there are a variety of legal regimes governing protection of pre-1972 sound recordings in the various states, and the scope of protection and of exceptions and limitations to that protection is unclear. Current law provides that pre-1972 sound recordings may remain protected under state law until February 15, 2067. After that date they will enter the public domain.

Now, if Mercury Records has half a brain among its entire corporation, I would hope that they would see it clear to okay your AWESOME intro and playing of the whole album!

On the sharing of it, thought, I’d worry about the copyright regime of “life of the author + 70 years” that the U.S. adopted (thanks, Sonny Bono + Walt Disney!); being out of print doesn’t give you any protection. You might be able to claim fair use if you were sharing a portion of the track with your commentary, but sharing the whole track (and almost certainly the entire album) is probably infringement.

(Note: I am not a lawyer, just a librarian (IANAL-JAL), and a Canadian one at that, so this in no way constitutes legal advice, just a note of friendly concern for a fellow geek.)

Synchronicity in action! Back in the 60s, when I was about 10 or so, I bought and built the “Daddy the Way Out Suburbanite” model kit:

I can’t remember where I got it from (I’m in the UK – I think I might have bought it from a mail-order advert in a comic) or when it got thrown out. But about a month ago, for some reason it popped into my head and I was thinking about tracking down another kit and re-building it. I think I could do a better job now than 10-year-old me!

I wanted to be a DJ so much when I was in high school, I drove everyone at KROQ in Los Angeles crazy by hanging around and generally annoying the hell out of everyone with my stupid questions. Now I just make podcasts from time to time to scratch the itch.

Please keep it up with those vinyl oldies. Fun song. While it was playing I picked up my guitar and played some melody to it, got the key and learned it. So very 60’s surftronic. It helped me get that surf sound out of my amp that has a lot of digital modeling built into it. That is why hearing oldies can be an extra treat for a sound geek like me! Thanks for the material my DJ.

I have, for the past year or so, been working on a similar project. I’ve a ton of old vinyl (just can’t part with them), and many not updated with a CD version. My old (like 1970’s) Sansui stereo system came with a turntable, and I figured out how to connect that to the sound card on my computer (I run it through the stereo amplifier first). And I love Audacity! It takes a little effort to learn how to use it, but it can turn an analog vinyl track into a simply awesome digital file. Fun! My favorites so far? CCR’s “Cosmos Factory” and my Tom Lehrer records.

I periodically listen to an internet radio station called Luxuria Radio. This song and this type of surf rock (including various other styles) remind me of the kinds of music they play. Its worth checking out if you haven’t listened before. It can be found at http://www.luxuriamusic.com.

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